January 6th, 2022 by WCBC Radio

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said Thursday he will ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for permission to offer a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines to residents 50 and older as well as to essential workers. At a news conference, Justice pointed to Israel, which last month became one of the first countries to approve a fourth vaccine dose for people most vulnerable to COVID-19 as it braced for a wave of infections fueled by the omicron variant.

“We’ve got to do something,” Justice said. “Either we sit back and just let our people die and we sit back and let our hospitals be overrun, or we try. If the CDC comes back and says no we can’t do this now, and then there’s enough governors that go together, we’ll sure go with them. And then we may get across the finish line that way.”

About half of West Virginia’s population is fully vaccinated.